I’m happy to pass along this announcement about “A Celebration of the Covenant Pilgrimage,” a four-week adult Sunday School class that will be presented at Salem Covenant Church next month (January 6, 13, 20, 27), kicking off a year-long celebration of our congregation’s 125th anniversary. Alas, I’ll be in Europe for most of the course, … More A Celebration of the Covenant Pilgrimage
11/23/12 – I’m happy to announce that I’ll be the featured speaker at the annual Winter Seminar offered by Bethlehem Covenant Church in Minneapolis, MN. I’ll be speaking February 8-10, 2013 on the theme of “Pious Wishes and Better Times: The Pietist Impulse in the 21st Century.” We’ll start Friday night with a historical overview … More Winter Seminar on Pietism
“Mission Friends.” That’s what my ancestors in what’s now the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC) originally called themselves, and it’s a winsome phrase I’ve always enjoyed. It reflects our foundational understanding that Christians are called “to reach out with the good news of Jesus Christ – evangelizing the lost, ministering to those in need, and seeking … More Covenant Kids Congo
On Sunday night this blog received its 50,000th visit. Which both got me feeling profoundly grateful to all of those who take the time to read my digital scribbling, and in a mood to reflect on the blog’s founding. The choice of name, for example. As I wrote in an early post, “The Pietist Schoolman” … More The Pietist as a “Catholic Evangelical”
If you don’t normally read Roger Olson’s blog, check it out: he’s on a roll. I’ve probably got three or four posts to write that have been inspired by something Roger’s written, but let me start with the most recent topic: denominations. I know this will shock many people, but my attitude toward denominations is … More Roger Olson on Denominations and Christian Unity
Before I get on a plane back to the Twin Cities, let me share some thoughts on the Saturday sessions from the 2012 meeting of the Conference on Faith and History, plus some more general observations: The early session featured three papers on “Christology in History: Three Perspectives from the Trenches.” All took off from … More Thoughts from CFH 2012: Saturday
Today I’m pleased to present the first guest post in the thirteen-month history of this blog, by Jim Rohrer (PhD, U. Michigan), a professor at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. A longtime reader and commenter here at The Pietist Schoolman, Jim holds a master’s in sacred theology and leads senior worship services six times … More Pietism: Interdenominational, Nondenominational, or Anti-denominational? (Jim Rohrer)
From this past April… For those reading my series recapping Bethel’s Pietism colloquium, let me encourage you to look at something Jay Phelan wrote yesterday on his blog, Additional Markings. His post begins: I had reason again this week to be thankful that I am a Pietist. For reasons buried deeply within Vatican paranoia the … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: Pietism vs. the “Imperial Church”
As this gets posted, I’ll be driving north from the Twin Cities to McGregor, MN, where I’m giving a series of talks as part of our church’s annual “family camp” at Covenant Pines. (I’ll post an outline next week.) Preparing for those talks left me with less blogging time than usual this past week, so … More That Was The Week That Was
In his scathing review (“pretty much an adventure in missing the point”) of Randall Balmer’s scathing review of Ross Douthat’s Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics, philosopher Jamie Smith took particular exception to Balmer’s observation that “institutions, in my experience, are remarkably poor vehicles for piety.” My post that follows isn’t actually … More Anti-Anti-Denominationalism
The Pietist Schoolman 